Eisenhower’s principal weakness as president lay in his failure to transfer his personal popularity to his party. His effortless and massive victories in 1952 and 1956 allowed him to believe that the country had ratified his ideas, when in fact they had chiefly welcomed his personal qualities of optimism, decency, and experience. During his time in office, his party imploded. In the elections of 1954, 1956, and 1958, Republicans lost a total of 68 seats in the House and 17 seats in the Senate—a
